54th Salon of Art at Montrouge finds a comfortably squalid home.
20 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in exhibits Tags: alechine, comtemporary art, Montrouge, navarro, paintings, renaud, salon, sculpture, valdivia
The Montrouge Salon of Contemporary Art, is an eagerly awaited appointment on the Paris art calendar, as it is a
Not here ...
chance to see emerging artists together in one show. In it’s 54th edition, it was forced to move this year because of ongoing work at the usual venue, and it was thus housed in an old factory building that provided, with its hopeless yet inspiringly airy premises, the perfect backdrop for this post-modern feast of all that is decadent and intriguing about
contemporary art. Somehow the violently bland factory space which practically screams the broken promises of industrialization work so much better than the solid and grand 1930s theater in the center of town which seems to recall something a bit more totalitarian.
FOR MORE IMAGES FROM THE SHOW CLICK HERE.
... but here. With Parizy's seven hills in the foreground.
The former Areva factory gave just the right atmosphere. There were long open vistas and lots of light under the glass roof. The open floor plan gave space for works like Fabrice Parizy’s topographic sculpture “Les 7 Collines,” in the foreground in the photo at right.
In contrast to the light, there was one dark, forbidding area which was transformed into a lugubrious “Pavilion Arson.” At it’s entrance was a small control room with dangerous looking electrical switches, and inside the area were works which explored the primal fears and thrllling imagery of horror stories, obsessions and phobias. Paintings and various installations nestled defiantly in this electric tomb.
In the far corner was Loïc Pantaly’s mixed installation of paintings,
video element of Pantaly's 17
video and structures, called Principe no. 17, (2009), looking right at home in the twilight.
The Salon is ending on May 20th, (yes, I am writing about it the day that it closes, pervert that I am). It brought together artists working in a great variety of media, yet all connected by some common awareness. Perhaps I am a bit rigid in my tastes, but I gravitate toward the two dimensional wall hangings and the free standing sculptures. In these, if there was a trend to be found, it would have something to do with surreal use of the everyday pop artifacts. The paintings that I found most intriguing were grotesque representations of ordinary things: dreamed up monsters and unforeseen predators in innocent clothing. As for sculptures the most powerful ones for me were the tarted up objects from a homemade time capsule, such as the Desperate Housewife installation, with baroque ironing board and wall sconces made from golden electric kitchen mixers.
Some works that looked especially good in the free flowing space of the “La Fabrique”:
Serguei Alechine, murals, 2009
Navarro's painting at the entrance to the Pavilion Arson.
Here are some images. For a lot more images from the 54th Salon of Contemporary Art at Montrouge, look on my “Other artists” page, or simply CLICK HERE.
Miguel Angel Valdivia
Miguel Angel Valdivia. In his notes, Gaël Chabrou mentions the recognizable influences of Mexican folk art, comic book art and B films. This is not to diminish the exceptional artistry of these works. Here are some in his series. These are old color lithographs of military men, which have been reworked and reconceived by the artist.
Miguel Angel Valdivia
